52 whales die in mass stranding in Australia: report

[Richard]

The US Navy just started using their high-power low frequency sonar systems again, after the ban was lifted. The Navy promised to be careful about whales, but ...

SYDNEY (AFP) – Fifty-two pilot whales have died after a mass stranding on Tasmania's northwest coast, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported Saturday.

Thirteen whales were still alive on Anthony's Beach at Stanley on the island south of the Australian mainland, and wildlife rangers and volunteers were trying to stabilise them, the broadcaster said.

"People are moving water around them, people are stopping them from drying and stopping them from getting sunburnt because their biggest problem is they get overheated," said Parks and Wildlife official Chris Arthur.

"Then we're going to try and move some if we can on to trailers so we can move them in to deeper water."

Pilot whales are members of the dolphin family but are considered by experts to behave more like whales.

A number of theories have been put forward as to why whales strand themselves, but the phenomenon remains a subject of scientific debate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081122/sc_...1122205557

[AndrewX]

There are varying opinions on why this happens, and I have one of my own. There are many reasons why I have come to this conclusion... to many to mention here.

They get chased into shore and ground themselves from sheer FEAR. What chases them? Fully developed Adult specimens of GIANT SQUID. The giant squid they catch in trawler nets are in fact babies for their species. Fully matured they can devour most any whale in the sea as they an reach over 100foot in length. Hence the old seamans tales of a squid grabbing a hold of their ship and sinking it.

Numerous years ago one grabbed a hold of a USNavy Frigate and refuse to let it go in the middle of the PacificOcean. It was declared a 'threat to National security' so they quickly emptied the ship of its occupants via chopper and took what they could with them before it was C4'ed into the heavans above... along with the squid.  The saga lasted 3 entire days... and the squid still wouldn't let go.  As intriquing as the US Governements secret files would be relating to UFO's, the USNavys secret files would reveal things that may make people even MORE scared than they would be about UFO's.

As mysterious as the Sea is, it is in fact even MORE mysterious than most can make out in their wildest of dreams.

There are other creatures that live in it that can give an adult GiantSquid a run for their money if they wanted too.

[Astrojewels]

Richard,

Do you have anymore info on what they are using?

Andrew X your theory is very logical, I would be in sheer fear too if I seen a giant squid! However I have believed for a very long time now that whales/dolphins only become beached for one reason and that is because the navy are messing around deep under the sea, they equipment they use confuses the inbuilt GPS in these sea creatures and there natural instinct for directions are lost.

It is a busy time of the year for whales in the southern ocean, and it saddens me that these beautiful creatures are the victims once again to man…

We will need to watch what ‘natural’ event unfolds in the months ahead, yet this is a big area so it will be interesting…

[Richard]

I thought it was Navy sonar that beached the whales. Dolphins and whales have been known to beach themselves whenever the Navy does sonar testing.

[AndrewX]

Hiya Kaz!!!:)

 

What you and Rick say about the sonar may well have its own merit... and there maybe a way of differentiating between a sonar grounding and squidChase grounding.  For let us NOT forget that whales and dolphins amongst other fish species have been grounding themselves mysteriously throughout time... long before that advent of sonar technology.

Two things I would look for to establish which which is which...

1. Were the creatures able to move back into the water and return to sea with very little effort or coaxing by man?

2. How far offshore was the ContinentalShelf from the grounding beach?

 If chased by adult Giant Squid, the chase wold have begun just outside or neaar the CShelf's drop off because these Giant molluscs do NOT like venturing to far in from the Shelf.  They prefer the seclusion and isolation of the deep water outside the shelf for their own safty.  Once they set chase to a pod of whales, they will veture in close to shore after them, but return back to the safty of the deep ASAP.  Their smaller counterparts like the squid we catch to eat have a similar behavioral pattern in shallower water.  They too will lurk in the deeper channels of water close to shore and use their natural camoflage to creep up to their prey prior to ambush.  Once the ambush is on and their prey begin to flee, they will chase it down like a bat out of hell, stopping at nothing to get their prize.  They will wisk past their own natural preditors such as seals and dolphins at top speed nto worrying about what may happen to them in the process.  If one is hooked and lifted off the water by 10 to 20 foot so as to be landed high up above on a jettties landing and it happens to come OFF and slams itself backinto the water, all the fisher need do is to immediately return their bait or lure into the water below and wait.  Within a few seconds, what was thought to be a lost squid suddenly emerges out of nowwhere and slams the bait again.  I have seen this done over 6 times on a tall jetty and the squid returns every time ready to catch its prey again.  All this happens at your feet and it's clearly visible when it does.  IOW, these squid have a real dogma about the way theu go about catching their prey.  Suffice to say, as you did Karen, that if a squid was large enough to devour us, we would not want to be in the water with it.  I'd sooner take my chases with a mako or GreatWhite... that's no joke because all sharks have a very weak spot.  Squid have none.  If you slam a shark hard on its nose as it comes in to hit you, preferably with a sharp metal object like a good JimBowie knife, and you make good square contact with its nose, you will live to fight another day.  The shark flees in pain and fear becasue it thinks that your whole body is as hard as the metal on the knife.  But a giant squid would offer no such merciful chance, once you're in his sights and you can't quickly get out of the water, it's goodbye.

So if the grounding was in fact caused by sonar, I would be willing to bet that the whales would not be exhusted to the point of giving up life.  As they are after a high speed frenzied chase that spanned up to 30miles (from the shelf to shore).  With sonar, the grounding would not be a frenzied fearful trip for them, but rather one of slow confusion and disorientation that eventually sees them grounded.  In many of these cases we would no doubt notice that the continental shelf was no where near the shoreline and the shelf itself may not even exist in the area they were grounded in.  If there is no shelf or it is 50-200plus miles off the shore, then I would say that was an 'electronic' grounding rather than a mad cat chase of sea titans.
 

So if they're on the shore and they seem to be flapping about and moving (trying to get back to deep water) I would say that THAT may well be a sonar or other electronically induced grounding.  But if they sit there looking dead to the world, then they obviously run their massive hearts out to get away from inevitable death.

 

Nice thread Rick, I like it.icon_cool

[Richard]

Here’s a video of an Alien-like Squid Filmed at Ultra-Deep Oil-Drilling Site that coincidently just appeared in the news.  

[Astrojewels]

Andrew X, you make your point very well, and there is no where to run in the deep sea except land, those big squid are scary creatures, so alien like! I watched a documentary once on the creatures that live ‘way deep’ they never come up to the surface, most of them are all transparent like... the sea is probably the last unknown in our world. However I do still believe that the sonar interference is to blame here.

[AndrewX]

Some miscellanous info about massive squid.

Scientists have known about the existence of a species of squid that is reported to be significantly larger than the giant squid, but had not seen or collected a complete specimen of the Colossal squid, named Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni.

This enormous squid, which was determined to be a male of the species, was 10 meters (32.8 feet), and weighed 1,089 pounds, making it the largest squid (the largest invertebrate) ever captured. What was even more astonishing is that, from what scientists know about squid species in general, there is great sexual dimorphism in squids, with females being significantly larger than the males. If that holds true for the Colossal squid, this male specimen that was captured could very well be dwarfed by a much larger female of the species.

 

[b]December 22, 2006—Like pulling a shadow from the darkness, researchers in Japan have captured and filmed a live giant squid—likely for the first time—shedding new light on the famously elusive creatures.

Tsunemi Kubodera, a scientist with Japan's National Science Museum, caught the 24-foot (7-meter) animal earlier this month near the island of Chichijima, some 600 miles (960 kilometers) southeast of Tokyo.
His team snared the animal using a line baited with small squid and shot video of the russet-colored giant as it was hauled to the surface.
The squid, a young female, "put up quite a fight" as the team attempted to bring it aboard, Kudobera told the Associated Press, and the animal died from injuries sustained during the capture.
Giant squid, the world's largest invertebrates, are thought to reach sizes up to 60 feet (18 meters), but because they live at such great ocean depths they have never been studied in the wild.

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[Astrojewels]

wow!!!!